Project by Design I/O is a huge interactive installation for children for the New York Hall of Science, featuring an ecosystem of virtual animals to play with:
Connected Worlds is a large scale immersive, interactive ecosystem developed for the New York Hall of Science. The installation is composed of six interactive ecosystems spread out across the walls of the Great Hall, connected together by a 3000 sqft interactive floor and a 45ft high waterfall. Children can use physical logs to divert water flowing across the floor from the waterfall into the different environments, where they can then use their hands to plant seeds. As the different environments bloom, creatures appear based on the health of the environment and the type of plants growing in it. If multiple environments are healthy creatures will migrate between them causing interesting chain reactions of behaviors.
Connected Worlds is designed to encourage a systems thinking approach to sustainability where local actions in one environment may have global consequences. Children work with a fixed amount of water in the system and have to work together to manage and distribute the water across the different environments. Clouds return water from the environments to the waterfall which releases water to the floor when it rains.
Sticking gears on everything is debated in the steampunk community. Some just love the gear in its own right, others say sticking gears on everything and calling it “steampunk” misses the nuance and aesthetic of the genre. I’m in the middle - I use gears but not “orphan” gears and they must look like they actually have a purpose in the design. They can imply movement.
I’m telling you this because I wanted to make this piece with no gears. I wanted it to look like a miniature steam engine powering this little guy. Starting with a brass shelf support pin I drilled numerous holes to attach the “engine”, exhaust, wings, head and legs. Everything is screwed in.
He needed a purpose - in situ - so I made him a stand, bracket with a copper and brass flower to “fly” to. It’s curled around the main support. He can be taken off the bracket but I really like seeing him “working”. He is a combination of parts from jewellery supplies, watch parts, electrical supplies and miscellaneous hardware.
Thanks for looking! I really appreciate all the support I get from my Tumblr community.
Originally founded in 1988, National Wildflower Week (May 7–13) aims to celebrate the beauty and role of the hundreds of native wildflowers across the United States. In addition to beautifying their surroundings, wildflowers help conserve water, protect soil from erosion, and serve as valuable habitat areas for migratory butterflies and birds.
While native plants and wildflowers generally require fewer resources to grow than cultivated plants, they can become at risk from habitat loss and invasive species that compete with them.
We’ve all been told that we should recycle plastic bottles and containers. But what actually happens to the plastic if we just throw it away? Here are the life cycles of three different plastic bottles.
Bottle One, like hundreds of millions of tons of its plastic brethren, ends up in a landfill. This huge dump expands each day, as more trash moves in and continues to take up space.
As plastics sit there being compressed, rainwater flows through the waste and absorbs the water soluble compounds it contains, and some of those are highly toxic. Together they create a harmful stew called “leachate”, which can move into groundwater, soil, and streams, poisoning ecosystems and harming wildlife. It can take Bottle One an agonizing 1,000 years to decompose.
Bottle Two floats on a trickle that reaches a stream, a stream that flows into a river, and a river that reaches the ocean. After months lost at sea, it’s slowly drawn into a massive vortex, where trash accumulates - place known as “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” This is one of five plastic filled gyres in the worlds seas.
Some animals mistake the brightly colored plastic bits for food. Plastic makes them feel full when they’re not, so they starve to death, passing the toxins from the plastic up the food chain, eventually to us.
Bottle Three, on the other hand, is recycled. It’s taken away on a truck to a plant, where it and its companions are squeezed flat and compressed into a block. The blocks are shredded into tiny pieces, which are washed and melted, so they become the raw materials that can be used again. Bottle Three is ready to be reborn, as something new.
So, what can you do? First - reduce your use of plastic altogether! And when you do find yourself needing to buy a bottle, don’t forget to recycle it. You’ll be doing Planet Earth a great, big favor.
‘Norwegian Rain’ have designed a new collection where raincoats become a living breathing part of the ecosystem rather than acting as an impenetrable plastic layer. instead of constantly fighting the moisture, the relationship is a symbiotic one where the fabrics are made of waste, meaning they are a part of the circular economy.
images by: KVANT-1,
Garments and Styling: Norwegian Rain (Featuring Gdansk Unisex),
This panel highlights the Manchester trail’s namesake. Cedars swamps are definitely one of my favorite ecosystems. Doesn’t get much better than a sphagnum moss carpet.
Bumblebee wings can beat over 130 times per second, the beating combined with their large bodies vibrates flowers until they release pollen, which is called buzz pollination. Buzz pollination helps plants produce more fruit. . Photo: Norla . . #buzz #bumblebee #pollen #flower #garden #nectar #plant #plants #flower #fruit #ecosystem #nature #wildlife #world #cute #boho #bohemian #hippie #hippiestyle #naturephotography #naturelovers #adorable #love #life #bees #savethebees https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2_qZ8Hzop/?igshid=r0tprjjgxgyf
Top Shot features the photo with the most votes from the previous day’s Daily Dozen, 12 photos selected by the Your Shot editors. The photo our community has voted as their favorite is showcased on the @natgeoyourshot Instagram account. Click here to vote for tomorrow’s Top Shot.
“The vulture was trekking the hyena while it was running away with its catch. The hyena stopped all of a sudden and the vulture flew over it. The proud hyena must be thinking ‘I got you there!’” Photograph by Chan Onn Fong
Watchto learn about the problems with plastic waste and how it affects marine life.
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” —Jane Goodall
I have some live pothos and English ivy in there, as well as some various mosses; hoping they hold up well with the humidity. Still need to get a small food dish, but I cannot WAIT for the snails to arrive!!
Orb.farm is a pixel-art glass bowl you can fill with water, sand, stone, wood, plankton, fish and other things useful for the creation of underwater ecologies
A wonderful in browser simulation game that lets you create a virtual underwater ecosystem where different species of creature can live, grow and die as part of a self-contained food chain.
I wrote recently about ‘Wind-Up worlds’. Orb.farm feels like one.
But it seems to me that it would benefit from the addition of a ‘slow-social’ experience.
What does an orb game look like when its been tended and looked after by a group of people over ‘years’? What does a group/collective idle bonsai tree game look like? one thats had 1000′s of collective hours of attention given to it? What would a game like this feel like to play?
Two ribs beautifully preserved belonging to @mike_the_pliosaur. The fossilised skeleton was found along the Yorkshire Coast of Britain & dates back to the Jurassic era. . Follow @neojurassica to see more #prehistoric wonders! . www.neojurassica.com Dinosaur Specialists Genuine Fossils ⚙️ Display Customisation Free UK Delivery ✈️ International Delivery . #MikeThePliosaur #plesiosaur #dinosaur #dinosaurbones #bones #ribs #extinct #extinction #evolution #nature #naturalhistory #history #archeology #geology #paleontology #palaeontology #science #fossils #fossilfriday #ecosystem #life #biology #coast #beach #jurassic #jurassiccoast #jurassicpark #jurassicworld #neojurassica https://www.instagram.com/p/CPtfIHSNlxq/?utm_medium=tumblr
Rio Tinto is planning to create a massive lithium mine in the beautiful Jadar Valley in my family’s homeland Serbia. This filthy company has bombed indigenous sacred sites, violated human rights and destroyed many vulnerable peoples home and the environment.
They plan to turn this:
Into this:
And this:
Oh and also this:
The Serbians are protesting and doing their best to counter this fucking crime against humanity and nature. The small communities and farmers will lose their ancestral land, their livelihoods and their home. This is an act of great evil. Please please please sign this. It has over 100,000 signatures already. Please help.
